Today we’d like to introduce you to Dawn Jefferis.
Hi Dawn, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been working as a professional photographer since 1985, beginning as a school photographer, but my husband and I started our own volume sports photography business, Legends Sports Photography in 2000. We started with a small handful of very loyal clients and have expanded to photograph close to 20,000 children in various youth sports all over the Kansas City Metro Area.
We primarily work with youth sports organizations, schools, and Parks & Recreation Departments, photographing teams and individuals on organized picture days. Our biggest sports are baseball & softball, seconded by fall and spring soccer seasons. We work with large organizations like Johnson Co. 3 & 2 Baseball, NKCA Baseball and Sporting Blue Valley Soccer, as well as several Parks Sports programs.
We employ a diverse team of associates who photograph, organize and edit to help us accomplish our rigorous schedule of daily events during peak seasons. Our goal is to create long-term work relationships with our leagues and the families we serve.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, it hasn’t been a smooth road, but challenges build character. We entered the sports photography market after I was let go from my school photography manager position while pregnant. I felt hopeless interviewing for jobs while visibly pregnant at 8 months, but was almost immediately hired by a National Sports photography company. That initial hiring led to us being offered our own territory here in Kansas City a little over a year later in 2000. We built our business in Kansas City from the ground up, client by client. Our first and longest client is Harrisonville Soccer Club.
The fluctuating economy always has an impact on sales, but COVID almost broke us. We went from being fully booked in March of 2020 to nearly all our accounts cancelling their upcoming events due to schools being closed and leagues cancelling their programs. That meant no income coming into our household for several consecutive months.
During that time, we collaborated with our photo lab partner on developing new systems and ways to avoid children being in close contact with one another on picture day. We started creating composited team photos, and actually designed two different types our sports leagues could choose from. Children were photographed individually, then edited together to create the illusion of a team photo. We also had an option where we put the individual photos of each child on a sheet, like in a yearbook. We found our leagues came back in record numbers with those photo safety features in place. It took a lot more work, but it was worth being able to get back to business. We also helped create an online payment system so parents didn’t have to stand in line to make purchases. They could order from their phones or from home, also eliminating close-quarters contact. Our primary goal was to keep everyone safe and continue creating memories families love from their sports seasons.
Then one week into our fall season of 2020, while still reeling from the spring COVID shutdowns our photo lab partner we had worked with for over 20 years, went out of business with no warning. We had begun peak season, with no way to produce all the images we had scheduled. We literally had days to find a new photo lab to produce our work. Every photo lab has their own work-flow systems, and we were staying up late at night, educating ourselves as fast as we could to make the switch as seamless as possible for our customers. We tried several professional photo labs, before landing with our current provider. It was almost the end of our business. We are so grateful for our customers and employees who stuck with us through it all that year.
We’ve been impressed with Legends Sports Photography – Kansas City, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Though I am the owner, and it is a woman-owned business, I could not do what we do without my husband, who serves as lead photographer, and our outstanding, hard-working associates. We currently specialize in youth sports portrait photography only. We don’t do families or weddings, and this is a full-time career, not a side hustle for our family. We are happy we are able to contribute to the community by offering employment and generating sales tax dollars. We also donate back to many of the organizations we work with to help their programs.
Focusing on one genre of photography allows us to explore all kinds of improvements to our market, so the process is smooth for our client organizations, and creates satisfied customers with the products they receive from us. When dealing with volume photography, our crew has a very short timeframe to capture all the individual images, as well as a team image, within an appointment time. My number one concern on photo day is staying on schedule, so games stay on schedule and people get in and out quickly with minimal hassle. To do that, a lot of planning and communication takes place. In many cases, we have 30 or more teams to photograph the same day. If we didn’t stay on time, that could create a huge mess for the leagues we work with. But at the same time the images and expressions we capture have to be great. It’s sometimes tough to work with the younger kiddos, but our staff is amazing.
We only partner exclusively with professional photo labs to bring our clients the best in the youth sports photography market and build each service plan to meet the needs of the leagues we work with. One of the most significant improvements we added for our clients was mailing each photo order to each family, so they would not have to rely on coaches handing out orders. Coaches have enough to do, and many are volunteers, so eliminating that responsibility was a huge benefit for the majority of our leagues.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Communication with our customers, organized photo days and providing an excellent product at their price point. We also review for constant improvement and stay on top of photography trends and new technology. Leagues return to us season after season because they trust us and are happy with our results.
Pricing:
- From $8 to $70. We have something for every family budget.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.legendskc.com
- Instagram: legendssportsphotokc
- Facebook: Legends Sports Photography (Kansas City, MO)
Image Credits
All photos by Legends Sports Photography
